Now that BlizzCon is over and Warlords of Draenor has been unveiled, we’ve been getting some additional questions about the gear changes currently planned for the expansion. To help shed some more light on what you can expect, we thought we’d take a bit of time to clarify a few things.

Keep in mind that as with anything still in development, the information we share now will likely change as we progress, but this should help give you a good understanding of our goals and thinking.

One of our main intents for primary stats is to make sure that higher Item Level (ilvl) pieces from new content are almost always superior to items from older content. Further, the changes we’re making to primary stats will help make pieces more universal, so groups will find gear drops more useful more often. This means you’ll be disenchanting less Intellect plate (only usable by Paladins today) or Agility mail (only usable by Hunters and Enhancement Shamans today). As we discussed at BlizzCon, we’re accomplishing this by making it so primary stats for a given piece of gear will change based on your current spec, though it’s likely that only new gear added in Warlords will work like this, as it might be impossible to implement this for all existing gear. Here are some additional points to know regarding the changes to primary stats:

Armor pieces will always have some amount of Stamina and Armor value.

Armor pieces always have Strength, Intellect, or Agility as a primary stat. Plate has either Strength or Intellect. Mail and Leather have either Agility or Intellect. Cloth has Intellect.

In the cases of Plate, Mail, and Leather, the primary stat will change depending on your current spec. Specifically, casters (including healers) will get Intellect, and melee or tank specs will get Strength or Agility.

Secondary Stats

Our intent for secondary stats is to differentiate pieces that occupy the same slot, allow for player customization, and to further differentiate specs within a class. Here are a few important points regarding the changes that are currently planned for secondary stats:

Secondary stats don’t change based on spec on armor pieces (or any piece).

Secondary stats on armor pieces can still include Haste, Crit, and/or Mastery.

Secondary stats on armor pieces will no longer include Hit, Expertise, Dodge, or Parry. These are being retired in Warlords, and will likely be removed even from existing gear.

Secondary stats on armor pieces will also no longer include Spirit, nor will they include Bonus Armor, which are reserved exclusively for non-armor pieces (which are explained below).

In addition, secondary stats on armor pieces may include several new stats we are exploring such as Readiness, Amplify, and Multi-strike. Technical Game Designer Chadd “Celestalon” Nervig has been sharing more details about these on his Twitter account.

Additional Properties

Armor pieces may have three other properties at random. First, items may be higher Item Level than normal. For sake of this discussion, we’ll call these items Warforged for now.

Second, items may have gem sockets. Unlike gem sockets today, gem sockets in Warlords of Draenor will be rarer but more powerful. There will be no socket bonuses, but we are strongly considering requiring the right color gem for the socket. All gems will grant secondary stats, including Spirit and Bonus Armor (see below).

Finally, items may have tertiary stats. These include things like a bonus to Movement Speed, Sturdiness, Life Steal, Avoidance (less AoE damage), and Cleave. Because of the rarity of tertiary starts, stacking them to produce (for example) a Movement Speed set will take enormous effort.

The design intent of these additional qualities on items is to make itemization more exciting and to give it more longevity. Rather than waiting weeks to get a breastplate, you might get one pretty quickly—but to get a true “best-in-slot” item will take much more effort and a bit of luck. Here are a few more points to consider for these properties:

We haven’t decided on exact numbers yet, but for the current discussion, assume something like a 10% chance for an item to have an additional property. It’s possible for one item to have all three of these properties, but the chance of that is very small.

The properties are determined at the time an item is looted (and possibly even includes crafted gear). For example, if an ogre boss drops two copies of the Bracers of Crithto, one might be a normal version, while another might have a tertiary stat.

Being Warforged, having a socket, or having a tertiary stat do not count against the stat budget of the item—they are strictly bonuses. The item will not have reduced primary or secondary stats in order to have these additional properties.

Set Bonuses

Similar to primary stats, set bonuses will also change depending on your current spec. This means a Paladin may only need one tier set rather than one for Holy and one for Retribution. It also means that set bonuses can be more tailored towards a spec. For instance, Marksman Hunter set bonuses can have different bonuses or different numbers than a Survival Hunter set. Like today, not every helmet, chest piece, or other piece of armor that drops will be part of a tier set.

Non-Armor Pieces: Weapons, Rings, Cloak, Necklace, and Trinkets

Primary Stats

In general, most of these pieces will not have Strength, Agility, or Intellect. Instead, they may have Attack Power or Spell Power to make sure they are more universal. However, our current thought it to keep primary stats on weapons so that they continue to feel iconic and special. Many of the items will have Stamina as well.

Secondary Stats

The information about secondary stats on armor above also applies here. In addition, Spirit and Bonus Armor can appear on these items. Spirit is only useful for healers. Bonus Armor is generally only useful for tanks. A Spell Power piece without Spirit may be attractive to healers or may be attractive to DPS casters instead.

The intent of including Spirit and Bonus Armor on these pieces is to make sure some items are still valuable only to healer and tank specs, helping to make sure they don’t have too much competition for gear against the more numerous DPS players in a given group. These are also stats we consider interesting, because how much of each of these stats a tank or healer might want is more subjective. For example, one tank in a group might prefer more Bonus Armor while another might prefer more Haste.

In the case of Spirit, imagine that stacking Spirit on every non-armor slot will give you more mana regeneration than you would reasonably need. That is to say, you likely won’t need Spirit on every single spot in order to function as a healer.

In the case of Bonus Armor, this stat fills the niche that Dodge and Parry fill today. We like tanks avoiding attacks as a mechanic, but it hasn’t proven to be a particularly interesting gearing strategy. However, we still want a dedicated damage-mitigation stat, and Bonus Armor will be it.

Additional Qualities

These items will also have a chance to have one of the additional qualities discussed above (Warforged, gems, and tertiary stats), and the information related to these qualities on armor still applies here.

Examples

A Holy Paladin has a raid tier set from the Blackrock Foundry. If she switches to her Retribution spec, the tier set is still functional, as the primary stats and set bonuses change. However, if she prefers Haste for her Retribution spec and Crit in her Holy spec (and is someone who enjoys the min-max game), then a single set of armor may not be optimal.

For her healing set, let’s assume this player also has one ring with Spirit, a shield with Spirit, and a trinket that procs on heals. The trinket is almost useless in her Retribution set. The shield is also useless, since Retribution is designed to wield a two-handed weapon. The ring will be sub-optimal because Spirit is useless to a Retribution Paladin, but if it has another valuable stat (e.g. Haste), it may still be worth using—again depending on how min-max-focused the player is.

A more casual player would probably be fine just using the trinket anyway and using a lower Item Level two-handed mace when she plays Retribution. A more min-max player would probably want separate rings, cloaks, trinkets, neck pieces, and weapons to use in the different specs. A very min-max player—such as someone competing in world-first Mythic raid progression—might even want different heads, shoulders, chests, and so on depending on the mix of secondary stats. This player might even swap out gems between the two specs.

This may seem like a lot to take in now, but we’ll continue to watch feedback and answer any additional questions where we can. And again, keep in mind that as with anything still in development, this information or some of the details will likely change as we progress.

As always, we welcome your constructive feedback, and we look forward to reading what you think.

I think the primary stat change is an exciting change.
The random secondary stats change is not.
Removing gems is not exciting.
Removing reforging is not exciting.
Removing enchants is not exciting.

All in all it seems like things are becoming hack and slash. You don't have to worry about talent trees anymore because everything is viable. You don't have to worry about farming for gems and enchants because they are almost all removed. Hit and exp removed. There will be no more gear discussion because it will be irrelevant. Group with however many people you can find. Enter the instance. Button smash. Gg game over. Nothing else to do. Oh wait... Go grind quests and dailies while running around on your ground mounts (because we all spent thousands of gold on northrend, Cata, and mop flying for no reason)being part of the world.

..... all this feels like diablo 3 i wonder how much a perfect roll BOE is going to be worth on the AH. welcome WoW players to D3 loot 2.0.

/facepalm

Reread the description. Its nothing like Diablo's loot system. If you keep repeating it then you're clearly either too lazy to actually read it, too foolish to understand it, or are spouting nonsense on purpose.

Will be interesting to see what they do with Jewelcrafting. Probably a shift towards making a lot more Necks/Rings/Trinkets, since gems are going to be in such low demand. They'll have to drastically reduce the rate you get them as well or they will have no value whatsoever...

"Sorry guys, we were not able to claim world first this time. Last week, our dps got no procs on their drops, and the other guild had 12% reduced aoe damage and a socket on most of their DPS. Guess they outplayed us."

The tertiary stats are utter bullshit, how can they even think of something like that? Either the numbers will be so small that they don´t matter at all, or you are forced to give the same loot to your cores week after week until they get the stat they need. If those stats also come for PvP gear the rage will be incredible. "Oh, can´t chase this healer because he has 15% increased movement speed on his gear. I only have some AoE reduction..."

IT'S DIABLO!!!!!!!!!! He is now going to absorb the souls of all of the dead from the WoD conflict to regain his powers back after his fall from heaven.

..... all this feels like diablo 3 i wonder how much a perfect roll BOE is going to be worth on the AH. welcome WoW players to D3 loot 2.0.

'Boy, hope they don't let items get listed on the AH before being identified on the book of Medivh'

Originally Posted by Durandro

/facepalm

Reread the description. Its nothing like Diablo's loot system. If you keep repeating it then you're clearly either too lazy to actually read it, too foolish to understand it, or are spouting nonsense on purpose.

some nice changes yea...
not quite sure how the tertiary stat bit will turn out though (the chance of an item having extra stats or a socket thing).. we all know how RNG can be sometimes, weve all had "that piece of gear you wanted so fukkin bad that never came until you didn't need it anymore" moment, some more than others,, how will this affect competition ?? cos we all love Recount right??? lol... will this include Heroic or bis gear having a chance at better stats too, or pvp gear?? I thinking this could get ugly fast lol. . time will tell though I spose..

I was excited for WoD, but now i can see myself discussing about every drop in a dungeon, no tx.

I'll play cloth for sure, less pain seeing ppl needing the gear with spirit or because it has a tertiary bonus and i'm still on green. Than losing a tanking gear to a dps or vice-versa. But then it'll be justified...

Nice FARM move, almost near korean mmos. I fought Blizz learned from MoP, I was wrong.

I think the primary stat change is an exciting change.
The random secondary stats change is not.
Removing gems is not exciting.
Removing reforging is not exciting.
Removing enchants is not exciting.

All in all it seems like things are becoming hack and slash. You don't have to worry about talent trees anymore because everything is viable. You don't have to worry about farming for gems and enchants because they are almost all removed. Hit and exp removed. There will be no more gear discussion because it will be irrelevant. Group with however many people you can find. Enter the instance. Button smash. Gg game over. Nothing else to do. Oh wait... Go grind quests and dailies while running around on your ground mounts (because we all spent thousands of gold on northrend, Cata, and mop flying for no reason)being part of the world.

Except with the flying part, I agree with you, min/max players are getting screwed
This doesn't make me want to buy WoD.

"Sorry guys, we were not able to claim world first this time. Last week, our dps got no procs on their drops, and the other guild had 12% reduced aoe damage and a socket on most of their DPS. Guess they outplayed us."

The tertiary stats are utter bullshit, how can they even think of something like that? Either the numbers will be so small that they don´t matter at all, or you are forced to give the same loot to your cores week after week until they get the stat they need. If those stats also come for PvP gear the rage will be incredible. "Oh, can´t chase this healer because he has 15% increased movement speed on his gear. I only have some AoE reduction..."

Reread the description. Its nothing like Diablo's loot system. If you keep repeating it then you're clearly either too lazy to actually read it, too foolish to understand it, or are spouting nonsense on purpose.

The diablo's loot system is shifting to place more focus on random bonus stats to create variety with a more stable core stat set. On top of that diablo is getting reforging. Random bonus stats works well in a game like diablo, for WoW particularly with those who do group based looting might find random bonus stats to amplify loot drama and dissatisfaction from loot upgrades. Some times you need the bad to make the good feel that much more rewarding. For WoW I personally dont think it should play a roll in loot unless everything moves to personal loot.

It absolutely is extending the grind. Tertiary stats aren't a make or break, but with the proposal that gems be a lot more powerful, the difference between the same piece with or without a socket will be substantial. This is significant for healers as well as gems will be an extra source of Spirit and healers all know how skewed Blizzard's perceptions on the necessity of Spirit for healers are.

Without the ability to customise my gear, my grind for gear is considerably extended as I continue to try not even for BiS but for the right distribution of stats. This seems a clear grab for people to play longer, and it doesn't matter if they're happy or frustrated as long as they are subscribed.

Do we know if socketed items will have a higher ilvl like Warforged does now? If not, then it's quite clear that anything not socketed is the weaker version of the item, so one player with the socketed bracers has a clear performance advantage over the player without, even though they have the same ilvl gear piece.

How so? Gone is my ability to modify my gear towards a desired result. Gone is my ability to balance my stats, I only have what I'm given by RNG luck. Blizz stated they were removing reforging because it was "too hard" to figure out the math, when the reality is that the ability to modify gear led to shorter gear chase time and the use of non-Blizzard resources to maximise benefit. Basically reforging got their shorts in a knot by giving too much to the community.

The gear change summary post referenced in this post simply says gems will be "more powerful". That's very vague and relative. They still don't have to be that significant, especially if it's just one gem.

As far as I see it, if Blizzard makes a certain "bonus" (ilvl / socket / tertiary) valuable enough that it hinders those that don't have it in doing normal content/progression/etc. and doesn't serve as a true "bonus", then they've failed at the new system. Which is entirely possible, but when talking about the merits of the system they proposed, you can't really say "well, they'll probably implement it terribly" because that defeats the purpose of talking about anything.

Socketed items don't have a higher item level, though they can. They stated 10% chance (not set in stone) for each of the 3 "addtional options" being 1) higher ilvl (current warforged model), 2) a socket, or 3) tertiary stats. And they aren't exclusive, so you could have all 3, but it would be very rare.

Obviously a non-socketed piece is a weaker version of the item, otherwise there'd be no purpose. So one person may have socketed bracers, the other guy, statistically, will have a socketed piece, or a higher ilvl piece, or a piece with a tertiary stat.

If Blizzard does it right, content will be designed in that gear is expected to be without, or with a very, very minimal amount of the "bonuses". It only extends the grind in your mind if you feel like you need absolute BIS for everything. It isn't any different than it is now - for me as a 10 man raider, the grind is basically infinite - I will never get all warforged pieces within the current lifespan of the content. And it's not hugely different in terms of "BIS perfection" for a 25m raider - it's still very unlikely you will fill every slot with warforged.

However, our current thought it to keep primary stats on weapons so that they continue to feel iconic and special. Many of the items will have Stamina as well.

Yay more stat padding and forced playstyles! /sarcasm

Weapons already have the most important stat anyway, damage/spellpower, and already have class restrictions. Make some weapons have spell damage instead of weapon damage if you want to force "iconic and special". Problem solved. Tanks have shields and forms to increase their armor/health.

Don't fuck this up, Blizz. You've already stripped too much of the freedom from the game.

why don't they give out blank gear with only a primary stat (int, agi or str). then leave other stats blank for you to go and choose your own at a statman or reforger ;p let us choose our own stats like ;p could work....

they could just make extra proc gear tradable with group members ?? would that solve the issue?